Beast Triad · Press kit
Beast Triad title screen: a lion stands on a rock ledge at sunset and gazes across the savanna toward the setting sun, with vultures circling and a herd running below, and the Beast Triad laurel-paw logo in the corner.

An elegant card duel of beasts: four sides, nine spots, one crown.

Across the five habitats, every rivalry is settled the same way: a deck of animal portraits and a 3×3 board. Place a card beside a rival’s, and if your number is higher, their card flips to your side.

Twenty-seven beasts from five habitats, each with its own ability and flip effect, eight rivals to defeat, and a Might, Swift, Wit triangle that settles every close call.

I · Fact sheet

Fact sheet

Title
Beast Triad
Platform
Playdate
Developer
Vincent (solo)
Release
Coming soon
Price
To be announced
Genre
Card game, tactics
Cards
27 beasts, 4 tiers, 3 classes, 5 habitats
Modes
Campaign, Quick Bout, Pass & Play, Daily Bout, ten guided lessons
Play time
About 2–3 hours to clear (estimate)
Controls
D-pad, A, B, crank
Crank
Browse cards; buttons work too
Players
1, or 2 on one Playdate
Language
English
Setting
Five habitats, from the Whispering Woods to the Golden Plains
Press
hey.vincent@icloud.com
II · Trailer

Trailer

81 seconds · 1920×1080, 30 fps · captured from the game running in the Playdate Simulator, shown at 4× with the Playdate screen’s own grey tones · trailer.mp4

III · The game

The game

Short description

Beast Triad is an elegant animal card duel for Playdate. Play beasts on a 3×3 board, flip your rivals’ cards with higher numbers, and turn bouts around with abilities, flip effects and the Might, Swift, Wit triangle.

Long description

From the Whispering Woods to the Golden Plains, the beasts settle every rivalry the same way: a deck of portrait cards and a 3×3 board. It is called a bout, and it is decided by numbers, nerve and the shape of the board.

Each card has four numbers, one per side. Place a card beside a rival’s card and compare the touching sides. Higher wins the flip, and the card turns to your color. When the nine spots are full, whoever holds more cards wins the bout.

Some spots are habitats. Set a hedgehog on Woods and every side gets +1. Set it on the River and it gets −1. Every beast is Might, Swift or Wit, and when numbers meet, the class with the edge gets +1. Every beast also has an ability, such as the eagle’s Sky or the wolf’s Pack, and a flip effect that fires when it is taken: Poison weakens the card that flipped it, Rally strengthens its old neighbors, and a crocodile on the River answers with a Death Roll. Two laws of the food chain finish the picture: Prey can Mob a Hunter that is already hemmed in, and Apex beasts crowd one another out.

Take on eight rivals in the Campaign, from Bramble the hedgehog in the Whispering Woods to Queen Mane on the Golden Plains, and win a card from each rival’s hand. Fill your binder with all 27 beasts, tune your five-card hand, then take it to a Quick Bout, the Daily Bout, or hand the Playdate across the table for two-player Pass & Play.

Features

  • Triple Triad, in the wild. A 3×3 board, five cards a side, four numbers on every card. Higher numbers flip cards. The rules fit on a card and the tactics do not.
  • Beast rules. Every beast has a class, an ability and a flip effect. Might beats Wit, Wit beats Swift, Swift beats Might. Abilities like Sky, Herd, Flank and Taunt decide where a card wants to be; flip effects like Poison, Rally, Escape and Death Roll make every capture cost something.
  • Two laws of the food chain. Mob: place a Prey beside a rival Hunter or Apex that another of your cards already touches, and it flips. Territorial: each Apex loses 1 on every side for every other Apex its owner holds on the board.
  • Five habitats. Woods, River, Meadow, Peaks and Jungle. A beast at home gets +1 on every side; away, −1. The board is different in every bout.
  • A food chain of 27 beasts. Four tiers, from Prey (Hedgehog, Frog, Rabbit) through Foragers and Hunters up to the Apex (Bear, Crocodile, Lion, Eagle, Panther). Each tier has its own card frame, and every beast has its own numbers and home habitat. Every copy in your binder is earned.
  • Learn by playing. How to Play offers ten guided lessons that teach each rule by playing it, plus an Archive of every rule, law, ability, flip effect and beast.
  • Eight rivals, four AI levels. A Campaign with a rival per region, and Quick Bouts from Easy to Master. Master searches several moves ahead and plays out the endgame.
  • Play it your way. Pass & Play on one Playdate with open hands, a Daily Bout with the same table and hands for everyone each day, and a crank that browses your hand. Against the CPU the rival’s hand stays face down, so reading their play is part of the game.
  • Made for the Playdate screen. Portrait cards with the numbers in a cross at the top-left, your cards in white and your rival’s shading into a dithered gradient, and a royal interface with fine rules and a serif display face, all drawn for the 400×240 1-bit display.
IV · How it plays

How it plays

A card is chosen, placed, and flips two rivals.
Place and flipPick a card, choose a spot, place it. A higher touching number flips the rival card.
A Prey card placed beside a rival Hunter that is already touched flips it.
MobMob, the Prey law: a Prey beside a rival Hunter or Apex that another of your cards already touches flips it.
A card flips and its flip effect fires on the board.
Flip effectsEvery beast has a flip effect that fires when it is taken, from Poison and Rally to Escape and Death Roll.
One placement, helped by abilities and the class triangle, flips several rival cards.
Many flipsAbilities, habitats and the Might, Swift, Wit triangle stack up: one well-placed card can flip several rivals.
A beast placed on its home habitat gets plus one on every side and wins a flip.
HabitatsOn its home habitat a beast gets +1 on every side. Anywhere else, -1.
Pressing B to inspect a card in hand: numbers, class, ability and flip effect.
Inspect a cardPress B on a card in your hand to see its tier, class, home habitat, ability and flip effect.
Browsing the eight rivals, then choosing five cards.
Pick a rivalEight rivals, five cards from your binder, then the bout.
Flipping through the pages of the binder.
Browse the binderCrank or D-pad through all 27 beasts.
V · Screenshots

Screenshots

Title screen: a lion stands on a rock ledge at sunset, gazing across the savanna toward the setting sun, with vultures circling, a herd running below, and the Beast Triad laurel-paw logo in the corner.
Title screen
Main menu: Campaign, Quick Bout, Pass and Play, Daily Bout, Binder and How to Play.
Main menu
Campaign screen: eight rivals, Bramble the hedgehog selected, with his card enlarged.
Campaign · eight rivals
Deck picker: a page of portrait animal cards, the chosen hand on the left and card info on the right.
Choose your five
Confirming a five-card hand before the bout.
Hand ready
A bout begins: your hand on the left, the rival's hand face down on the right, habitat spots on the 3 by 3 board.
A bout begins
Holding a card over an empty spot with the grabbing hand cursor.
Holding a card over the board
Card detail: the card enlarged with its tier, class, home habitat, ability and flip effect.
Card detail
A freshly placed card turning over a rival's card.
A card flips
The final score after the YOU WIN! announcement.
Victory
After a win you claim one card from your rival's hand.
Claim a card
Lining up a Prey card beside a rival Hunter that another of your cards already touches.
Lining up a Mob
The hemmed-in rival flips to your side, and ability and effect labels pop over the board.
The Mob lands
A flipped beast's effect fires and its label pops over the board.
A flip effect fires
One placement flips three or more rival cards.
Several flips at once
Aiming a card at its home habitat for a +1 bonus.
Habitat spot
A +1 pops as the card lands on its home habitat.
Habitat bonus
Quick Bout setup: rival level and the Habitats, Abilities and Triangle rule toggles.
Quick Bout setup
The binder: a page of collected beasts, with your record on the left.
Binder
How to Play: guided Lessons and the Archive.
How to Play
The lesson list, from First Steps to A Full Bout.
Ten lessons
The First Steps lesson opens with its title strip across the board.
Lesson 1 · First Steps

All 22 screenshots are in screenshots/1x (native 400×240, pure black and white, exactly as the device draws them) and screenshots/4x (1600×960 in the Playdate screen’s grey tones).

VI · Music & sound

Music & sound

Soundtrack

The Misted Keep66 BPM · D Dorian · 0:58 loop

Calm medieval theme for the title and binder: harp ostinato over a D and A drone, a recorder air, a voice-like middle verse with frame drum, and soft viols in open fifths.

Throne Room Gambit116 BPM · A minor · 1:06 loop

Tense battle of wits for matches: spiccato string ostinato, trumpet call to arms, horn gambits answered by harpsichord runs, a Neapolitan omen and a timpani-driven reprise.

Alpha of the Den140 BPM · A minor · 0:48 loop

Final-rival remix of the duel theme at 140 BPM: four-on-the-floor, driving saw bass, phrygian boss riff.

Jingles

Sound effects

Every sound is synthesized for Beast Triad and plays on the Playdate as 22 kHz mono samples. Previews are MP3.

VII · Background

Why a card game about animals

A tiny 3×3 board is one of the best puzzles ever put on a card table: every move changes what your rival can do next. It also fits a Playdate perfectly, with a screen made for crisp cards and a crank that is happy to riffle through a hand.

The name is a nod to Triple Triad, the card game inside Final Fantasy VIII. A triad is a group of three, and a 3×3 board is three rows of three.

Beast Triad began as one question: what if the cards were beasts, painted like the portraits of an old card game? The roster, its numbers and its habitats grew from there. A hedgehog is tough underneath and soft everywhere else. A rabbit is quick on the left and careless everywhere else. An eagle owns the sky and nothing else.

The whole game is drawn for Playdate’s 1-bit screen: side-profile animal portraits with dramatic light and dithered shadow, card frames that grow richer up the food chain, a royal interface of fine rules and a serif display face, and a title screen where a lion surveys the savanna at sunset.

The roster

Tier I · Prey · 8 beasts

Hedgehog card
Hedgehog
Squirrel card
Squirrel
Frog card
Frog
Duck card
Duck
Rabbit card
Rabbit
Marmot card
Marmot
Gecko card
Gecko
Sloth card
Sloth

Tier II · Forager · 8 beasts

Boar card
Boar
Otter card
Otter
Meerkat card
Meerkat
Deer card
Deer
Bison card
Bison
Goat card
Goat
Monkey card
Monkey
Parrot card
Parrot

Tier III · Hunter · 6 beasts

Fox card
Fox
Owl card
Owl
Heron card
Heron
Cheetah card
Cheetah
Wolf card
Wolf
Python card
Python

Tier IV · Apex · 5 beasts

Bear card
Bear
Crocodile card
Crocodile
Lion card
Lion
Eagle card
Eagle
Panther card
Panther
VIII · Logo & art

Logo & art

Pixel art is 1× at heart. Scale it by whole numbers only (2×, 3×, 4×) with nearest-neighbour sampling, so every pixel stays square.

IX · Credits

Credits & contact

Made by
Vincent, solo: design and direction
Built with
Claude (Anthropic): code, pixel art, fonts, music and sound were created with AI assistance
Engine
Playdate SDK, Lua
Press
hey.vincent@icloud.com
Website
beast-triad-playdate.pages.dev
Social
[@handle]
Review builds
[how to request one]